


Run

by KitsunesKnight



Series: The Awoken Wanderers - FFXIV Stories [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-12-09 11:50:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11668560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KitsunesKnight/pseuds/KitsunesKnight
Summary: A young Keeper Miqo'te learns just how bad things have gotten with his small family, and is forced to flee the only home he knows, but is rewarded with the ability to create a new future.





	Run

“Niqi’a!”

The voice of his father woke him, but despite the urgency in his father’s tone, all he did was roll to face opposite the approaching man.

“Niqi’a, wake up! Please!”

He shrugged the hand off his shoulder that shook him, and he half-turned his head. “What do you _want_ , father?”

His father sighed, and shook his head. “You need to leave. You need to run. I’ve packed some things for you, but you must leave. Immediately.”

This got his attention, there wasn’t just urgency, there was also panic in his father’s voice, so he sat up to listen. “Why?”

His father pressed a satchel into his son’s hands. “It is your mother. I had hoped I could find a way to… I didn’t think…” His father sighed and did his best to compose himself. “I know you think little of me, and you have much reason to. I am sorry I have failed you thus far, but I hope with this act I can save myself in your eyes. Your mother desires power, and we have been incapable of providing it. She has decided to take extreme measures, and even now plans to join the Coeurl King, but to do so, she must take us before him and slay us both. I refuse to let her insane desires harm you any further, so you must _flee_ Niqi’a, please, before she returns!”

He looked into his father’s eyes, and felt his father’s hands around his, still pressing them around the satchel. There was a fire there that he had never seen before, not for the thirteen years he had been alive. Despite all the derision he had for his father, he took these words to heart and nodded to his father.

“Okay.”

Relief visibly flooded his father, who took his hands away, and ruffled his son’s hair. “Good. And truly… I am sorry. I thought I could find a way to appeal to her, to change her, so that you could see the woman I fell in love with, but… She seems to be long gone. So I am sorry for all I have caused you. But please, flee from here, flee from the Shroud, for if you remain beneath this canopy I fear she will never stop hunting you. Go out, make me proud, let loose the adventurous spirit I’ve seen in you!”

He followed his father to the edge of the clearing that their small home existed in, but paused to look up at him. “But… what about you?” He had never once asked his father such a question, and it felt strange, but after all this time, he could see the father he always wished he had.

“I will delay her. I fear you shall not make it far without me to slow her down. Your safety is my most important goal. So please, Niqi’a, flee. Flee far and fast.” His father ended his plea with a click of his tongue, a notion in the huntspeak tongue of the Miqo’te that meant a deep and urgent warning to _get away._

With that sharp sound echoing in his ears, he fled, and didn’t look back.

His mind raced as he ran, suddenly realizing the gravity of the situation, that he could never return home, that all he knew would be lost. Except… just maybe…

He turned sharply and made for another area he knew well. The place where his friend, an orphan living amongst the Keepers in the area, lived. He barrelled into the tiny clearing, and nearly ran straight into his friend.

“Niqi’a! What are you doing here?”

“Alanu’a, I need help!” He pleaded.

“Oh? What did that nasty Rizho do now?”

“It’s what she plans to do. She means to kill me and my father, he bade me flee the Shroud, but, I didn’t know-, I would’ve been-” He paused. “I-I don’t… know how to read...”

Alanu’a studied his friend for a moment before responding. “So she finally snapped, huh? Well, not to worry, your studious best pal shall not leave you hanging. We know the best ways around these woods, don’t we? We’ll be free of the Shroud in a moments time, and I shall guide our way into the world beyond!” Alanu’a puffed out his chest, and placed a fist on his breast.

He half sighed and half laughed in relief. There would be at least one thing that would stay with him.

Alanu’a made him wait only a moment as he collected his few possessions, hefting them in a satchel similar to his own. “Come, Niqi’a, let’s be off!”

That night, the pair made their first steps into the deserts of Thanalan. Sure enough, Alanu’a was quite capable of leading them, both with his sense of direction - one that was shared between them - as well as his ability to read the common script of Eorzea. When they came upon the city-state of Ul’dah, they found it crowded, hot, and uncomfortable. Instead, Alanu’a suggested a yet further place, a temperate island off the coast, large, a whole nation. Far away was all the description he needed, even better that it lay across the water, he decided his mother would never find him there.

They boarded a ship, using the surprisingly large amount of gil his father had included in the satchel, and before long, the coast that held the hot desert of Thanalan and the now suffocating canopy of the Shroud, was barely a mark on the horizon. Looking forward, he found the beautiful blue ocean ahead of him, a sight that made a permanent mark in his memory.

The city of Limsa Lominsa was cool, salty, and while damp, it was not stuffy or highly uncomfortable. They made their way off the vessel and into the city itself, and he stopped his friend, speaking low.

“Alanu’a, in order to make our escape as solid as possible, we must abandon our names. I would not want word of me to ever escape but the memory of our past lives. Not only that, but, I want nothing to do with my parentage any longer, instead let us find names of the faraway places we’d always spoke of, and adopt those instead?”

Alanu’a considered this a moment, then nodded. “I don’t have much against my own name, but I see your point. I bet we could find some fine names to use! All we need is-”

Just then, a door swung open opposite the hall, and Alanu’a’s eyes began to shine. “Look! Books!” He cried, pointing into the room.

Sure enough, he saw as they made their way to the door, there were bookshelves lining the walls, reaching to the high ceiling.

“This is perfect, all we need is to find names in one of these books!” Alanu’a whispered excitedly.

As he looked, he saw many people moving about, plucking books, replacing them, showing them to someone behind a counter, then walking away with them. A symbol adorned the counter, symbolizing it as some kind of group, but he could not read any of the words.

Without hesitation, Alanu’a approached the desk. “Excuse me, are we allowed to read any of these books?”

The figure on the other side smiled. “Most, at least. Many are for the exclusive use of the guild, but… Well, what sort of book would you like to read?”

Alanu’a pursed his lips, thinking. “A book of names. From a faraway place!”

It was the figure’s turn to take a moment of thought. “I believe we have such books available. But why would you want a book of names?”

“I like names!” Alanu’a said, grinning from ear to ear.

“Well, I daresay it is an odd thing for a child to enjoy, but far be it for me to restrict a child from learning. Give me but a moment.”

The next hours were spent pouring over the books they had been given, Alanu’a pointing out as much as he could to him, to help him begin learning to read on his own, searching for names, and by the time the sun was setting outside, and the room was growing quiet, he finally stood.

“That is my name, then. No longer will you call me Niqi’a Rizho, for he died escaping the Shroud.”

His friend stood as well. “And no longer will I be Alanu’a Nichi, his best friend and companion even to the grave! I am Arluin Noel, a noble Keeper of Limsa Lominsa!”

“And I am Vincent Lalande, Keeper of the sea!” Vincent said, feeling pride within him, determining that this man would be everything he'd dreamed of.

**Author's Note:**

> My favourite thing of all this, was this was basically an elaborate way to explain why Vincent doesn't have a lore-friendly name.


End file.
